Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei The Animation [Episode 2]

The investigation has begun! There was a murder! Danganronpa isn’t wasting any time with getting into its murder game theme! I AM HAPPY BUT DISAPPOINT!!

Okay so first things first, a round up of what this episode was about. Continuing from the last episode, the students are retiring to bed (A little aside:…the tough guy…is actually a girl; why my eyes didn’t register the skirt and breasts from the first episode I do not know. This is why some girls are never noticed) and Monobear sends a message over the P.A.; basically some rules and announces his gift (hammer, knife, whatever else used to kill) to them all. His rules are a little sketchy, makes me think hard why these rules even exist because both seem so trivial.

1. No water during Night Time
2. Only the girls bathroom can be locked.

These are the two I made a note of. Why can’t water be used during night time? What’s the worst that they can do – shower themselves to death? It’s a cause to wonder, is there some secret that the water can lead to during night time?

I doubt that the girls’ bathroom being the only one that can be locked has anything to do with Monobear’s sense of decency – because he has none. So what exactly is that all about? Are the girls too dunce to realize some secret passageway that could lead to freedom, and if the boys were to somehow end up in their bathroom, probably one of them with their keen observation would discover it. Anyway these are all premature thoughts but those rules are really suspicious.

Moving on, Naegi’s door is tricky and Monobear comes out of nowhere to tell him how to get it to open then leaves. Sayaka comes to Naegi’s room just before lights out to tell him something creepy has been happening (apparently someone was trying to get into her room).

So being the chivalrous guy that he is, Naegi decides to go with Sayaka’s suggestion of swapping rooms. This bitch! Now you tell me, whether friend or crush or potential love interest, would you REALLY swap rooms knowing the kind of situation you guys are in and having her TELL YOU that someone was trying to force their way into the room? Why couldn’t she just go with Naegi’s suggestion to share his room? He could have slept on the floor, since he’s all about being a gentleman, and she wouldn’t have to worry about any late night perversions from him because he’s not that type of guy. I judged her immediately. Sayaka, you are selfish and there is no forgiveness.

On the other hand, I could give her the benefit of the doubt and say, “alright, she’s just suspicious of everyone and she doesn’t trust Naegi to be in the same room with her because, y’know, you never really know a person.” But I can’t because Naegi isn’t like that, he even VOWED to protect her.

Moving on…I feel myself ranting.

Naegi is all whatever though. He doesn’t seem to mind that if he should start getting chased by some killer and runs to his room that Sayaka will ignore his frantic pounding on the door and screams to be let in. Legit…

He goes to bed, wakes up, meets everyone in the hall for breakfast since it’s a rule among them that everyone meet to lessen suspicions rising among them. Some are early, tardy, Sayaka doesn’t show up. Everyone notices her disappearance after awhile, Naegi becomes overcome with dread and runs to the room to find her. There are gashes everywhere in the room – on the walls, carpeting, table and chairs.

Sayaka has been murdered. And she bleeds pink.

…pink blood? Really, really Danganronpa??

Once again. Moving on.

Naegi passes out after witnessing that and they all assemble in the gym where Monobear announces what everyone else already knows. He also brings up the act of a Class Trial. Basically, it’s where the students – as the jury – decide amongst themselves who the murderer is. If they are correct, the murderer is executed. If not, then they all are executed, leaving the murderer to go free. There really is no innocent until proven guilty in this one. You only get one chance.

But again, I feel a hole in this method. Monobear isn’t really going to kill them all. Because where’s the fun in that? He already knows who they suspect of murdering Sayaka. He has the tapes to see for himself exactly who is doing the murders. He knows their verdict will be wrong, so no, he isn’t going to just bundle them all off to be killed. It’s illogical and contradicts his whole prospect of bringing despair. And there would be no thrill. Is he going to work with the off-chance that they’ll actually call out the real murderer? I don’t think so either.

During this meeting, Monobear gets on Junko’s nerves and she steps on him. He reminds her that acts against the principal are met with disciplinary action. And remember he self-destructed in the last episode. This time it was different.

There’s almost something artistic about them making the blood pink. But I still would have preferred seeing every gory detail, like I did in Another and Elfen Lied. So that totals two murders. Everyone suspects Naegi of killing Sayaka since they swapped rooms. It doesn’t sound fishy but given the circumstance, I probably would have thought that (no, I wouldn’t).

He has to convince them now that he didn’t murder her and he also seems afraid. But he shouldn’t be…though he should, at the same time. What if Monobear decides to mess around with the tapes just to have Naegi framed so the first Class Trial can actually end with just one person being killed? Like in Deadman Wonderland, when the tapes were screwed up to show Ganta as the culprit when he was actually innocent. But I think this is one area wherein he’ll be scrupulous and not mess with anything. Though I cannot know for sure.

And the episode ends with them heading to the Class Trial room, because Monobear is an impatient teddy and needs the excitement, since it’s his aphrodisiac.

First of all, I am disappoint with this pink blood foolishness. When I started Danganronpa, I came expecting everything to be done to the utmost detail. I just can’t accept the pink blood. Pink doesn’t make this real for me, nor exciting. It’s not as stimulating or cringe-worthy as I was expecting it to be. And now, I feel as if I can’t take it seriously – the deaths, the tone of this anime. All because of the pink blood.

But whatever, next week let’s see what the verdict will be. Oh yeah, I like the OP theme song, for some reason it reminds me of Linkin Park, because the lyrics sound like something they’d sing.